Trendspotting @ Post Expo 2016

By Head of Operations APAC, Justin Turner

Last month, I was honoured to present alongside Neopost at the annual Post Expo, which was held this year in the vibrant city of Hong Kong. With over 3000 attendees from the postal ecosystem ascending from Sweden to Korea and everywhere in between, this three-day long event promised to deliver (no pun intended) trends and technologies impacting the industry. Here’s my top three highlights from Post Expo:

Consumer choice is key to success

A common theme running through the various presentations and exhibits on display is the focus on providing consumers with more choice. I was particularly impressed by the universal addressing system what3words, that uses a unique geocoder to turn geographic coordinates into three-word addresses and vice versa for precise identification of hard to find locations - increasing the number of options for the postal industry to deliver parcels. Similarly, the emphasis on increasing choices resonated with every individual that I spoke to, who saw the value of the flexible delivery options that Temando offers to the end-to-end customer journey experience.

One stop solutions is the future

Another exciting trend at Post Expo is the emergence of one-stop solutions to streamline and accelerate eCommerce. Neopost’s CVP-500 fit-to-size automated packing system is a great example of this, as it enables any e-tailers, e-fulfillment professionals, or businesses shipping orders of multiple sizes to save cost by optimising parcel dimensions. At Temando, we also agree that convenience and functionality should come hand in hand, so we make connecting to platforms such as Magento a breeze, and our one-stop solution streamlines the shipping and fulfillment processes from shopping cart right through to delivery for improved workflows.

Our world is shrinking at lightning speed

The last thing that really stood out for me is the positive attitude that my peers have when we discussed the challenges of a borderless world of commerce. Because more touchpoints often lead to more complexity, eCommerce businesses today have to skillfully juggle a rapidly growing amount of inventory, data, budgets, and partners from multiple locations, while consistently proving their value to an ever-fickle multi-demographical audience. That is why a shipping platform like Temando can help merchants take their business to the next level, as it takes the stress away from having to invest in additional resources to build and maintain a complicated technology stack.

Tony Robinson, Founder of Post Expo summed up the sentiment at the event well when he said, “it’s all about robots, electric delivery vehicles – which will soon be self-driving and autonomous – drones and last-mile delivery solutions...The posts are reliant on the technologies as opposed to the technologies being reliant on the posts”. While shipping software may seem futuristic to some, it was not that long ago that the idea of drones or same-day delivery was a novelty - look where we are now.

To find out about my Post Expo presentation, or to discover how Temando supports the postal industry, get in touch with me.